New Delhi: Elections to choose the 15th President of India will be held today — a race between NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu and the opposition’s Yashwant Sinha.
The election will be held on the first day of Parliament’s Monsoon session. Droupadi Murmu, 64, was a strong contender for the country’s highest office before the 2017 presidential elections, till then Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit, was named as the government’s choice for the post.
The NDA choice of Ms Murmu – a tribal woman from Odisha and a former Jharkhand Governor – is seen as a calculated move, drawing the support not only of Jharkhand’s ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, but also Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik, seen as a fence-sitter.
The opposition settled on Mr Sinha – a former Union Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government who later joined Trinamool Congress – after three proposed candidates said no.
The President is elected by the members of the Electoral College, comprising elected members of both houses of Parliament and legislative assemblies of all states as well as the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
No party whip can be issued for the voting and the MPs and MLAs can vote as they please. The counting of votes will be held on July 21 and the new President will take oath on July 25, under the schedule announced by the Election Commission.
